I need a hard hitting opening sentence for my essay comparing and contrasting Macedonia and the Aztecs.?

Aztecs-They had more modern weapons.The Aztecs is a collective term used for all of the Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican peoples under the control of the Mexica, founders of Tenochtitlan, and their two principal allies, who built an extensive empire in the late Postclassic period in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries in Central Mexico.

The nucleus of the Aztec Empire was the Valley of Mexico, where their capital Tenochtitlan was built upon raised islets in Lake Texcoco. After the 1521 conquest of Tenochtitlan by Spanish forces and their allies which brought about the effective end of Aztec dominion, the Spanish founded the new settlement of Mexico City on the site of the now-ruined Aztec capital. The capital of the modern-day nation of Mexico, the greater metropolitan area of Mexico City now covers much of the Valley of Mexico and the now-drained Lake of Texcoco.

Aztec culture had rich and complex mythological and religious traditions. For Europeans, the most striking element of the Aztec culture was the practice of human sacrifice which was conducted throughout Mesoamerica prior to the Spanish conquest.

In what is probably the most widely known episode in the Spanish colonization of the Americas, Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztecs in 1521 thus immortalizing himself and the Aztec Hueyi Tlatoani, Moctezuma II (Motecuhzoma II).

The Aztecs spoke Classical Nahuatl. Although some contemporary Nahuatl speakers identify themselves as Aztecs, the word is normally only used as a historical term referring to the empire of the Mexicas, as distinguished from the Mexicas alone. This article deals with the historical Aztec civilization, not with modern-day Nahuatl speakers.

The ancient Macedonians were a Greek tribe and the modern Greek Macedonians are still Greeks.

There are also modern Slav-Macedonians, and modern Albanian-Macedonians who live in the modern Slavic/Albanian republic of Macedonia and they of course are not Greeks.

Let me give you some facts about the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia.

First of all the name "Macedonia" is a Greek name!

According to ancient Greek mythology, Macedon (ancient Greek "Μακεδών"- "Makedōn", poetic "Μακηδών"- "Makēdōn" ) was the name of the first phylarch "Φύλαρχος" (tribal chief) of the "Μακεδόνες"- "Makedónes", the part of the "Μακεδνοί"- "Makednoí" tribe which initially settled western, southern and central Macedonia and founded the kingdom of Macedon (intirely in Greek borders). According to Herodotus (Histories 8.47), the Makednoí were in turn a tribe of the Greek Dorians. All these names are probably derived from the Doric adjective "μακεδνός" "makednós" (Attic μηκεδανός mēkedanós), meaning "tall". This in turn is derived from the Doric noun μάκος mākos (Attic and modern Greek μάκρος mákros and μήκος mēkos), meaning "length". Both the Macedonians (Makedónes) and their Makednoí tribal ancestors were regarded as tall people, and they are likely to have received their name on account of their height.

Ancient Macedonians were speaking a Greek dialect and it is very easily proved from archaeological evidence!

ALL the monuments and inscriptions found in Macedonia are written in Greek language. All the inscriptions on coins and other artifacts are written in Greek. There are no ancient monuments with a different language. Furthermore there are a large number of discoveries in Asia in the route of Alexander the Great. All these monuments, discovered in Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, India and many more countries, prove that Alexander’s quest was Greek and that his goal was to spread the Greek civilization all over the world. (Not to mention that Alexander founded 70 Greek cities with most important the city of Alexandria! and he is responsible for the spreading of the Greek culture and language all the way to India!)

ALL the ancient Macedonian names mentioned in history or found on tombs are Greek. ALL the kings of Ancient Macedonia had Greek names. Let me give you a small list of the Greek names of the Macedonians

Alexandros(Alexander) , Phillipos (Philip), Ifestion, Antipatros, Antiochos Lyssimachos , Ptolemeos, Antigonos ,Seleukos, Parmenion, Perdicas Hermias Anaksarxos, Marsias, Zoilos, Deinokratis, Aristoboulos ,Aristokritos, Thessalos ,Argeos, Pausanias, Eumenes , Kassandros , , Admetos, Krateros, Arrianos, Philotas, Cleitos, Neoptolemos Python, Hippostratos, Attalos, Kleitarxos, Polyperchon, Aristandros, Polycratis, Bolon, Koinos, Iolaos, Xenokratis ,Deukalos, Arrhideos ,Charidimos ,

Kalas, Perseas, Meleagros, Arpalos, and hundred more names found written on their tombs!!!

The names of their cities and the names of all the regions of Ancient Macedonia are Greek. Such as the capital Thessalonici, the ancient capital of Pella and Aigai and Anthemous, Almopia, Amphaxitis, Bisaltia, Botiaia, Chakildiki, Edonis, Elimeia, Eordaia, Krestonia, Lynkests, Mygdonia, Odomantis, Orestis, Paionia, Pelagonia, Pieria, Sintiki, Thassos, Tymphaea, and more!

Of course the Macedonians were participating in the Greeks only Olympic Games and that alone is one of the strongest evidence of how the other Greeks were accepting them as Greeks! The first one was Alexander the Philhellene (The king of Macedonia, Alexander I, was named Philhellene by the Theban poet Pindaros for the same reason Jason of Pherrai and Euagoras of Cyprus were called Philhellenes (Isocrates 107A, 199A). The title Philhellene in ancient times meant Philopatris (lover of the homeland) or simply put “a patriot” (Plato, Politics, 470E; Xenophon, Agesilaus, 7, 4), which is why Alexander the Great did not touch the traditional house of Pindaros when he ordered his soldiers to burn Thebes. The term Philhellenes was given in Ancient years ONLY to Greeks!)

Alexander the Phillelen was asked (as every other Greek had to) to prove his Greek origin before participating to the Olympic Games! And Alexander proved his Greek origin! He proved his GREEK ORIGIN from the city of ARGOS (the Macedonians themselves claimed Argos as their origin!) (... Had I not greatly at heart the common welfare of Hellas I should not have come to tell you; but I am myself Greek by descent, and I would not willingly see Greece exchange freedom for slavery.... If you prosper in this war, forget not to do something for my freedom; consider the risk I have run, out of zeal for the Hellenic cause, to acquaint you with what Mardonius intends, and to save you from being surprised by the barbarians. I am Alexander of Macedon."

(Herodotus, The Histories, 9.45)

Since then a lot of Macedonians participated to the Olympic Games and a lot won! There are 13 winners from Macedonia in scripted in Olympia! (Most famous is King Philip himself and King Archelaos of Macedonia who took part 50 years before Philip! HERE ARE THE NAMES AND DATES OF THE MACEDONIANS WINNERS OF OLYMPIC GAMES:

472 BC Boys’ Boxing, winner Tellon from Macedonia (we also have the name of his city Orestheia)

408 BC Tethrippon, winner Archelaos King of Macedonia

380 BC Pankration, winner Xenophon (we also have the name of his city Aigai)

356 BC Horse Race, winner Philip II King of Macedonia

352 BC Tethrippon, winner Philip II King of Macedonia

348 BC Synoris, winner Philip II King of Macedonia

328 BC Stadion, winner Kliton Macedonia

320 BC Stadion, winner Damasias Macedonia

304 BC Tethrippon, winner Lampos Macedonia (we also have the name of his city Philippoi)

292 BC Stadion, winner Antigonos Macedonia

288 BC Stadion , winner Antigonos Macedonia

268 BC Foals’ Tethrippon, winner Belestichos Macedonia

268 BC Stadion, winner Seleukos Macedonia

264 BC Synoris, winner Belestichos Macedonia

129 BC Unknown game, winner Diephilos (we also have the name of his city Aigai )

Not to mention that the Macedonians worshiped the same Gods and they also participated in every Pan-Hellenic festival such as “Putheia” in Delfi and “Hetaireidia", the "Apellaia" and many more.

Of course the Greeks did not regard the ancient Macedonians as non Greeks or Barbarians!! There isn't any text with such a reference! The term Barbarian was used ONLY by Demosthenes and only against Philip and not against Macedonians! The term Barbarian was used for political reasons and it was used as a insult! And it actually worked! King Philip was heavily insulted from Demosthenes because he was accused as non Greek!

The majority of today's historians ascribe the accusation of being Barbarian to the political differences between Dimosthenis and King Philippos.

Professor M.Errington,[ "A History of Macedonia", University of California Press, Los Angeles, 1990] clearly states:

"Demosthenes' allegations were lent an appearance of credibility by the fact apparent to every observer, that the lifestyle of the Macedonians was different from that of a Greek city state. This alien way of life was however, common to the western Greeks in Epeiros, Akarnania and Aitolia, as well as to the Macedonians, and their fundamental Greek nationality was never doubted. Only as a consequence of the political disagreement with Macedonia was the question ever raised at all."

And the world authority on Macedonia Professor Nicholas Hammond, ["Macedonian Echo" magazine, February 1993]

"The speeches of Demosthenes, that deal with Philip as the enemy, should not be interpreted as an indication of the barbarian origins of Macedonians, but as an expression of conflict between two different political systems: the democratic system of the city-state (e.g. Athens) versus the monarchy (Kingdom of Macedonia). Personally, I believe that it is the common language, which gives one the opportunity to share a common civilization. Thus the language is the main factor that forms a national identity."

It is also very clear from the surviving ancient sources that the Macedonians considered themselves to be Greeks.

Let me give a few examples:

“Arrian, "Anabasis of Alexander"

"He sent to Athens three hundred Persian panoplies to be set up to Athena in the acropolis; he ordered this inscription to be attached: Alexander son of Philip and the Greeks, except the Lacedaemonians, set up these spoils from the barbarians dwelling in Asia",

(Arrian I, 16, 7)

"Your ancestors invaded Macedonia and the rest of Hellas and did us great harm, though we had done them no prior injury;... I have been appointed hegemon of the Greeks... "

(Arrian, II, 14, 4)

"There are Greek troops, to be sure, in Persian service -- but how different is theirs cause from ours ! They will be fighting for pay--- and not much of it at that; we on the contrary shall fight for Greece, and our hearts will be in it. As for our foreign troops ---Thracians, Paeonians, Illyrians, Agrianes --- they are the best and stoutest soldiers of Europe, and they will find as their opponents the slackest and softest of the tribes of Asia."

(Arrian, 11.7)

"You ought to have remembered that you are not the attendant of and adviser of Cambyses or Xerxes, but of Philip's son, a man with the blood of Heracles and Aeacus in his veins, a man whose forefathers came from Argos to Macedonia, where they long ruled not by force, but by law."

(Arrian 4.11)

"Well, here we are in a foreign land; and if for that reason we must think foreign thoughts, yet I beg you, Alexander, to remember Greece; it was for her sake alone, that you might add Asia to her empire, that you undertook this campaign. Consider this too: when you are home again, do you really propose to force the Greeks, who love their liberty more than anyone else in the world, to prostrate themselves before you?"

(Arrian 4.11)

"In this latter place he (Alexander) found political troubles in progress, and settled them, remitting the tribute which the town paid to Darius on the ground that Mallus was a colony of Argos and he himself claimed to be descended from the Argive Heracleidae."

(Arrian 5)

"He set the Persian palace on fire, even though parmenio urged him to save it, arguing that it was not right to destroy his own property, and that the Asians would not thus devote themselves to him, if he seemed determined not to rule Asia, but only to pass through as a conqueror. But Alexander replied that he intended to punish the persians for their invasion of Greece, the destruction of Athens, the burning of the temples, and all manner of terrible things done to the Greeks: because of these things, he was exacting revenge. But Alexander does not seem to me to have acted prudently, nor can it be regarded as any kind of punishment upon Persians of long ago.

[Arrian, 3.18.11-12]

Arrian, "The Indica"

"...There a man appeared to them, wearing a Greek cloak, and dressed otherwise in the Greek fashion, and speaking Greek also. Those who first sighted him said that they burst into tears, so strange did it seem after all these miseries to see a Greek, and to hear Greek spoken. They asked whence he came, who he was; and he said that he had become separated from Alexander's camp, and that the camp, and Alexander himself, were not very far distant. Shouting aloud and clapping their hands they brought this man to Nearchus..."

(Arrian, XXXIII)

"...On this Alexander wept the more, since the safety of the force had seemed too good to be true; and then he enquired where the ships were anchored. Nearchus replied: 'They are all drawn up at the mouth of the river Anamis, and are undergoing a refit.' Alexander then called to witness Zeus of the Greeks and the Libyan, Ammon that in good truth he rejoiced more at this news than because he had conquered all Asia since the grief he had felt at the supposed loss of the fleet cancelled all his other good fortune..."

(Arrian,XXXV)

"...Alexander then sacrificed thank-offerings for the safety of his host, to Zeus the Saviour, Heracles, Apollo the Averter of Evil, Poseidon and all the gods of the sea; and he held a contest of art and of athletics, and also a procession..."

(Arrian,XXXVI)

"...The Greeks moved on thence, from the sacred island, and were already coasting along Persian territory..."

(Arrian,XXXVIII)

"...Thence they sailed eight hundred stades, anchoring at Troea; there were small and poverty-stricken villages on the coast. The inhabitants deserted their huts and the Greeks found there a small quantity of corn, and dates from the palms..."

(Arrian,XXIX)

Some more from Plutarch:

Plutarch - Moralia, "On the Fortune of Alexander"

"Alexander lived many hundred years ago. He was king of Macedon, one of the states of Greece. His life was spent in war. He first conquered the other Grecian states, and then Persia, and India, and other countries one by one, till the whole known world was conquered by him. It is said that he wept, because there were no more worlds for him to conquer. He died, at the age of thirty-three, from drinking too much wine. In consequence of his great success in war, he was called Alexander the Great."

(Plutarchos, Moralia, On the Fortune of Alexander, I, 328D, 329A [Loeb, F.C. Babbitt])

"But he said, `If I were not Alexandros, I should be Diogenes'; that is to say: `If it were not my purpose to combine barbarian things with things Hellenic, to traverse and civilize every every continent, to search out the uttermost parts of land and sea, to push the bounds of Macedonia to the farthest Ocean, and to diseminate and shower the blessings of the Hellenic justice and peace over every nation, I should not be content to sit quietly in the luxury of idle power, but I should emulate the frugality of Diogenes. But as things are, forgive me Diogenes, that I imitate Herakles, and emulate Perseus, and follow in the footsteps of Dionysos, the divine author and progenitor of my family, and desire that victorius Greeks should dance again in India and revive the memory of the Bacchic revels among the savage mountain tribes beyond the Kaukasos...' "

(Plutarchos, On the Fortune of Alexander, 332 a-b)

"Yet through Alexander, Bactria and the Caucasus learned to revere the gods of the Greeks ... Alexander established more than seventy cities among savage tribes, and sowed all Asia with Hellenic magistracies ... Egypt would not have its Alexandria, nor Mesopotamia its Seleucia, nor Sogdiana its Prophthasia, nor India its Bucephalia, nor the Caucasus a Hellenic city, for by the founding of cities in these places savagery was extinguished and the worse element, gaining familiarity with the better, changed under its influence.'

(Plutarchos Moralia. On the Fortune of Alexander, I, 328D, 329A)

"When he (Alexander the Great) arrived at Ilion he sacrificed to Athena and offered libations to the Heroes."

(Plutarchos, Alexander 15)

"It is agreed on by all hands, that on the father's side, Alexander descended from Hercules by Caranus, and from Aeacus byNeoptolemus on the mother's side"

(Plutarch, The Life of Alexander)

And some from Herodotus

"Now that the men of this family are Greeks, sprung from Perdiccas, as they themselves affirm, is a thing which I can declare on my own knowledge, and which I will hereafter make plainly evident. That they are so has been already adjudged by those who manage the Pan-Hellenic contest at Olympia"

(Herodotus, The Histories 8.43)

"Tell your king who sent you how his Hellenic viceroy of Macedonia has received you hospitably... "

(Herodotus V, 20, 4)

"Now that these descendants of Perdiccas are Hellenes, as they themselves say, I myself chance to know"

(Herodotus V, 22, 1)

"Xerxes, having so spoken, held his peace. (SS 1.) Whereupon Mardonius took the word, and said: ....I myself have had experience of these men when I marched against them by the orders of thy father; and though I went as far as Macedonia, and came but a little short of reaching Athens itself, yet not a soul ventured to come out against me to battle. ......But, notwithstanding that they have so foolish a manner of warfare, yet these Greeks, when I led my army against them to the very borders of Macedonia, did not so much as think of offering me battle."

(Herodotus Book VII)

"...but the Dorians on the contrary have been constantly on the move; their home in Deucalion's reign was Phthiotis and in the reign of Dorus son of Hellen the country known as Histiaeotis in the neighbourhood of Ossa and Olympus; driven from there by the Cadmeians they settled in Pindus and were known as Macedons; thence they migrated to Dryopis, and finally to the Peloponnese, where they got their present name of Dorians."

Herodotus, Book I, 56

"...Three brothers of the lineage of Temenos came as banished men from Argos to Illyria, Gavganis and Aeropos and Perdikkas, and worked for the king that was there.

When the king learned that when the queen baked the bread of Perdikkas, it doubled its size, than of the the other breads, he considered that as a miracle and ordered the 3 brothers to leave his kingdom. The brothers required their payment. Then the king told them to take the sun as a payment. Gavganis and Aeropos where taken by surprise and the youngest brother, Perdikkas, accepted the offer. He took out his sword, circled it 3 times and took the sun, which he placed in his underarm and left with his brothers..."

Herodotus VIII,137

"...and that you may tell your king, who sent you, that a Greek, the lord of Macedonia, entertained you royally both with bed and board."

Herodotus, Book V, 20

"The composition of the fleet was as follows: 16 ships from Lacedaemon, the same number from Corinth as at Artemisium, 15 from Sicyon, 10 from Epidaurus, 5 form Troezen, 3 from Hermione. The people of all these places except Hermione are of Dorian and Macedonian blood, and had last emigrated from Erineus, Pindus, and Dryopis."

Herodotus, Book VIII ,43

And some from a Roman:

Polybius' Histories and Macedonia

"If the circumstances are the same now as at the time when you made alliance with the Aetolians, then your policy ought to remain on the same lines.' That was their first proposition. 'But if they have been entirely changed, then it is fair that you should now deliberate on the demands made to you as on a matter entirely new and unprejudiced.' I ask you therefore, Cleonicus and Chlaeneas, who were your allies on the former occasion when you invited this people to join you? Were they not all the Greeks? But with whom are you now united, or to what kind of federation are you now inviting this people? Is it not to one with the foreigner? A mighty similarity exists, no doubt, in your minds, and no diversity at all! Then you were contending for glory and supremacy with Achaeans and Macedonians, men of kindred blood with yourselves, and with Philip their leader; now a war of slavery is threatening Greece against men of another race, whom you think to bring against Philip, but have really unconsciously brought against yourselves and all Greece. For just as men in the stress of war, by introducing into their cities garrisons superior in strength to their own forces, while successfully repelling all danger from the enemy, put themselves at the mercy of their friends,--just so are the Aetolians acting in the present case. For in their desire to conquer Philip and humble Macedonia, they have unconsciously brought such a mighty cloud from the west, as for the present perhaps will overshadow Macedonia first, but which in the sequel will be the origin of heavy evils to all Greece.

"But if thanks are due to the Aetolians for this single service, how highly should we honour the Macedonians, who for the greater part of their lives never cease from fighting with the barbarians for the sake of the security of Greece? For who is not aware that Greece would have constantly stood in the greatest danger, had we not been fenced by the Macedonians and the honourable ambition of their kings?"

(Polybius, Book IX, 35, 2)

"...I assert is that not only the Thessalians, but the rest of the Greeks owed their safety to Philip."

(Polybius, Book IX, 33, 3)

"...because he (Philip) was the benefactor of Greece, that they all chose him commander-in-chief both on sea and land, an honour previously conferred on no one."

(Polybius, Book IX, 33, 7)

"...he (Alexander) inflicted punishment on the Persians for their outrages on all the Greeks, and how he delivered us all from the greatest evils by enslaving the barbarians and depriving them of the resources they used for the destruction of the Greeks, pitting now the Athenians and now the Thebans against the ancestors of these Spartans, how in a word he made Asia subject to Greece."

(Polybius, Book IX, 34, 3)

"The 38th book contains the completion of the disaster of the Hellenes. For though both the whole of Hellas and her several parts had often met with mischance, yet to none of her former defeats can we more fittingly apply, the name of disaster with all it signifies than to the events of my own time. In the time I am speaking of a comon misfortune befell the Peloponnesians, the Boiotians, the Phokians, the Euboians, the Lokrians, some of the cities on the Ionians Gulf, and finally the Macedonians"

(Polybius, Book IX, 38, 8)

Actually we have hundred of references about ancient Macedonia!!!

But lets see what the respectful historians say about ancient Macedonians!

Nicholas G. L. Hammond, ‘Philip of Macedon’

Duckworth Publishing, February 1998

"Philip was born a Greek of the most aristocratic, indeed of divine, descent... Philip was both a Greek and a Macedonian, even as Demosthenes was a Greek and an Athenian...The Macedonians over whom Philip was to rule were an outlying family member of the Greek-speaking peoples."

"As subjects of the king the Upper Macedonians were henceforth on the same footing as the original Macedonians, in that they could qualify for service in the King's Forces and thereby obtain the elite citizenship. At one bound the territory, the population and wealth of the kingdom were doubled. Moreover since the great majority of the new subjects were speakers of the West Greek dialect, the enlarged army was Greek-speaking throughout."

And "What language did these `Macedones' speak? The name itself is Greek in root and in ethnic termination. It probably means `highlanders', and it is comparable to Greek tribal names such as `Orestai' and `Oreitai', meaning 'mountain-men'. A reputedly earlier variant, `Maketai', has the same root, which means `high', as in the Greek adjective makednos or the noun mekos. The genealogy of eponymous ancestors which Hesiod recorded […] has a bearing on the question of Greek speech. First, Hesiod made Macedon a brother of Magnes; as we know from inscriptions that the Magnetes spoke the Aeolic dialect of the Greek language, we have a predisposition to suppose that the Macedones spoke the Aeolic dialect. Secondly, Hesiod made Macedon and Magnes first cousins of Hellen's three sons - Dorus, Xouthus, and Aeolus-who were the founders of three dialects of Greek speech, namely Doric, Ionic, and Aeolic. Hesiod would not have recorded this relationship, unless he had believed, probably in the seventh century, that the Macedones were a Greek speaking people. The next evidence comes from Persia. At the turn of the sixth century the Persians described the tribute-paying peoples of their province in Europe, and one of them was the `yauna takabara', which meant `Greeks wearing the hat'. There were Greeks in Greek city-states here and there in the province, but they were of various origins and not distinguished by a common hat. However, the Macedonians wore a distinctive hat, the kausia. We conclude that the Persians believed the Macedonians to be speakers of Greek. Finally, in the latter part of the fifth century a Greek historian, Hellanicus, visited Macedonia and modified Hesiod's genealogy by making Macedon not a cousin, but a son of Aeolus, thus bringing Macedon and his descendants firmly into the Aeolic branch of the Greek-speaking family. Hesiod, Persia, and Hellanicus had no motive for making a false statement about the language of the Macedonians, who were then an obscure and not a powerful people. Their independent testimonies should be accepted as conclusive (N.G.L. Hammond, The Macedonian State, p.12-13

And Malcolm Errington, ‘A History of Macedonia’

(University of California Press, February 1993, pg 3)

"That the Macedonians and their kings did in fact speak a dialect of Greek and bore Greek names may be regarded nowadays as certain."

"Ancient allegations that the Macedonians were non-Greeks all had their origin in Athens at the time of the struggle with Philip II. Then as now, political struggle created the prejudice. The orator Aeschines once even found it necessary, in order to counteract the prejudice vigorously fomented by his opponents, to defend Philip on this issue and describe him at a meeting of the Athenian Popular Assembly as being 'Entirely Greek'. Demosthenes' allegations were lent on appearance of credibility by the fact, apparent to every observer, that the life-style of the Macedonians, being determined by specific geographical and historical conditions, was different from that of a Greek city-state. This alien way of life was, however, common to western Greeks of Epiros, Akarnania and Aitolia, as well as to the Macedonians, and their fundamental Greek nationality was never doubted. Only as a consequence of the political disagreement with Macedonia was the issue raised at all."

"The Molossians were the strongest and, decisive for Macedonia, most easterly of the three most important Epirote tribes, which, like Macedonia but unlike the Thesprotians and the Chaonians, still retained their monarchy. They were Greeks, spoke a similar dialect to that of Macedonia, suffered just as much from the depredations of the Illyrians and were in principle the natural partners of the Macedonian king who wished to tackle the Illyrian problem at its roots."

And Robin Lane Fox - "Alexander the Great"

"he was still in a world of Greek gods and sacrifices, of Greek plays and Greek language,though the natives might speak Greek with a northern accent which hardened 'ch' into 'g','th' into 'd' and pronounced King Philip as Bilip".

Page 30.

"Philip's mother had been a Lyncestian noblewoman" - "rebellious kings of Lyncestis who traced their origins to the notorious Bacchiad kings of Greek Corinth"

Page 32.

"Olympia's royal ancestry traced back to the hero Achilles, and the blood of Helen of Troy was believed to run on her father's side"

Page 44.

"The Macedonian kings, who maintained that their Greek ancestry traced back to Zeus, had long given homes and patronage to Greece's most distinguished artists"

Page 48.

"But Alexander was stressing his link with Achilles... Achilles was also a stirring Greek hero, useful for a Macedonian king whose Greek ancestry did not stop Greeks from calling him a barbarian"

Page 60.

"No man, and only one hero, had been called invincible before him, and then only by a poet, but the hero was Heracles, ancestor of the Macedonian kings"

Page 71.

"War, Philip had announced, 'was being declared against the Persians on behalf of the Greeks, to punish the barbarians for their lawless treatment of the old Greek temples"

Page 92.

"among the conservative Greek opinion there would be no regrets that Alexander the Greek leader was invading the barbarians"

Page 101.

"To his ancestors (to a Persian's ancestors) Macedonians were only known as 'yona takabara', the 'Greeks who wear shields on their heads', an allusion to their broad-brimmed hats"

Page 104.

"As for the hired Greeks in Persian service, thousands of the dead were to be buried, but the prisoners were bound in fetters and sent to hard labour in Macedonia, 'because they had fought as Greeks against Greeks, on behalf of barbarians, contrary to the common decrees of the Greek allies'"

Page 123.

"Alexander son of Philip and the Greeks, except the Spartans...", as "Sparta did not consider it to be her fathers' practice to follow, but to lead"

Page 123.

"In spirit, Alexander made a gesture to the Lydians' sensitivities, though his Greek crusade owed them nothing as they were not Greeks."

Page 128.

"Alexander was not the first Greek to be honoured as a god for political favour..."

Page 131.

"Alexander was recognized as a son of Zeus after his visit"

Page 201.

"it was the Delphi of the Greek East and as a Hellene, not as Pharaoh, Alexander would be curious..."

Page 204.

"supported the belief that he was the Greek gos Zeus's son"

Page 214.

"when his Macedonians mutinied at the end of their marching, they were said to have ridiculed him and told him to 'go fight alone with his father', meaning Zeus, not Philip"

Page 216.

"The occasion was not lost on Alexander: at Susa, he sacrificed to Greek gods and held Greek gymnastic games..."

Page 253.

"In return he left behind Darius's mother, daughters and the son whom he had captured at Issus, and appointed teachers to teach them the Greek language."

Page 254.

"Alexander was still the Greek avenger of Persian sacrilege who told his troops, it was said 'that Persepolis was the most hateful city in the world'. On the road there, he met with the families of Greeks who had deported to Persia by previous kings, and true to his slogan, he honoured them conspicuously, giving them money, five changes of clothing, farm animals, corn, a free passage home, and exemption from taxes and bureaucratic harassments."

Page 256.

And even Borza who was at first not sure if the Ancient Macedonians were Greeks he now has come to the same conclusion as anyone else:

Eugene N. Borza, ‘Makedonika’

Regina Books, Claremont CA

"Our understanding of the Macedonians' emergence into history is confounded by two events: the establishment of the Macedonians as an identifiable ethnic group, and the foundation of their ruling house. The "HIGHLANDERS" or "MAKEDONES" of the mountainous regions of western Macedonia ARE DERIVED FROM NORTHWEST GREEK STOCK; THEY WERE AKIN BOTH TO THOSE WHO AT AN EARLIER TIME MAY HAVE MIGRATED SOUTH TO BECOME THE HISTORICAL "DORIANS", and to other Pindus tribes who were the ancestors of the Epirotes or Molossians. That is, we may suggest that NORTHWEST GREECE PROVIDED A POOL OF INDO-EUROPEAN SPEAKERS OF PROTO-GREEK from which were drawn the tribes who later were known by different names as they established their regional identities in separate parts of the country."

"First, the matter of the Hellenic origins of the Macedonians: Nicholas Hammond's general conclusion (though not the details of his arguments)that the origin of the Macedonians lies in the pool of proto-Greek speakers who migrated out of the Pindus mountains during the Iron Age, is acceptable."

And these Richard Stoneman, Ulrich Wilcken ,John V.A. Fine ,A. B. Bossworth ,Ernst Badian ,Charles Edson,Thomas Martin,Hermann Bengtson ,Paul Cartledge ,A.R. Burn ,Peter Green ,Mary Renault ,J.M. Roberts,R. M. Cook,Francois Chamoux ,Bevan ,Peter Tsouras ,Lewis Vance Cummings ,D.G Hogarth ,L.S. Stavrianos

Martin Sicker ,Graham Shipley ,Richard Gabriel,Michael Cage,Samuel Eddy ,René Grousset ,Anthony E. David ,Donald R. Dudley THEY ALL AGREE THAT ANCIENT MACEDONIANS WERE GREEKS.

I know you might be looking for an opening sentence from someone with expertise in either Macedonia or the Aztecs. I can't give you exactly what you're looking for, but I can suggest a strategy for writing an opening sentence.

Try thinking of your essay as a pyramid with the bulk of your information flowing from the top to the bottom. If the reader read absolutely nothing beyond the first sentence, they would still need to understand your main point. So write a sentence that compares and/or contrasts, in a very general way, Macedonians and Aztecs.

Pick up a newspaper. Read the first paragraph of all the stories on the front page. They have the main point summed up in one or two sentences so that if a reader read no further, they would still have a clue as to what the story was about.

Hope this helps!

I don't really think comparing the macedonians and the aztecs is a great paper idea, clearly you have a better idea of what you teacher is looking for than I do, but you should open with something like, the world has know many great war faring and ruthless peoples but few have stained the pages of history with as much blood as the macedonians and the aztecs, or you can talk about the aztecs and cannibleism and and how diabolical they were versus how righteous the macedonians were, but alexander the great was pretty ruthless too. anyway hope this helps a bit

Macedonia produced the youngest general to conquer more territory faster than anyone else while the Aztecs produced something curious.

" Fire erputing EVERYWHERE, some armed men with swords stab each other in battle ," at this point place your hand on your self as if stabbed and yell out in pain, then continue " Looking over the horizon, another yell is heard in the distance, as more soldiers arrive to face more bloodshed. A...ahem..... This is what it would have been like , if the Macedonia had fought the Aztecs."

what do ya think?

sarisofori, there is a region in the united states called Macedonia, in Alabama. They are as related to the authentic Macedonia as your newborn country is. In fact the only common think that you both have is that you use the name of Macedonia (which in both cases does not belong to you).

In ancient times the Aztecs were the leaders of injinuity and technology, in modern times macedonia is no where near the forfront in.....

Aztecs were people.. you can't contrast a country to a group of people.. you can though contrast Macedonians to Aztecs.

In that case i would write.. kaj si be sho prais! sakas piperk?! lol

ROME WAS NOT BUILT IN A DAY. You should go through various idiums as above and then elaborate on the same taking your subject in mind

i think this is a confusing question. Some people don't know that you refer to the macedonians who were and are greeks

but they think you say about fyromians.

JUST REMEMBER THIS

MACEDONIANS WERE NEVER greeks

they killed greeks.

just look around but try not to include the greek sources

cause u know what they want to stole our MACEDONIA identity

if they are Macedonians as they say why they call them selfs greeks.

We are Macedonians & we call us Macedonians